Tajik President Emomali Rahmon today morning left for the northern Sughd province.  The main purpose of the visit is for the head of state to get acquainted with social and economic situation in the region, according to the Tajik president’s official website. 

While in Sughd, Emomali Rahmon will also visit the city of Isfara. 

Meanwhile an official source at the Tajik government says Emomali Rahmon and his Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbai Jeenbekov will meet at a conflict-prone border crossing for talks with representatives of communities and heads of village councils of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.  

Further, the presidents will carry out negotiations in the Tajik northern city of Isfara to discuss issues related to bilateral cooperation between their countries, including the process of delineation of the disputed stretches of the mutual border, the source added.  

Meanwhile, the press service of the Kyrgyz president says negotiations between Jeenbekov and Rahmon will continue Cholpon-Ata, a resort town on the northern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan.  The presidents will sum up the results of the meeting in Isfara and discuss the whole spectrum of issues related to state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. 

Tajikistan’s common border with Kyrgyzstan is 970 kilometers long and just over half – 519 kilometers – has officially been agreed upon.  Much of the border that remains undelineated rests between Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Kyrgyzstan’s Batken province.  Trouble periodically sparks around the Tajik exclave of Vorukh.